I was at our local Barnes and Noble this weekend, finalizing some details for next 
month’s Book Release Party. As I was leaving, I went to the Bargain Books, aimed straight for THIS BOOK. I’m a sucker for arcana and this massive, 500-plus page tome is full of trivia on symbols and signs from the world of religion, myth, history, science, and the occult. I’d vowed to purchase the book, at some point, as a writing resource, and passed by it that day as a friendly reminder.
Well, something happened that convinced me I must buy that book on the spot.
Now for some backstory.
My WIP is an Urban Fantasy about a reporter for a pulp magazine who, while investigating the tragic atomization of his girlfriend, stumbles upon a plot to build a massive ghost box in the center of Los Angeles. And did I mention his atomized girlfriend is the one who gives him a heads-up? (A bit of trivia for you: Did you know that Thomas Edison is rumored to have been constructing a ghost box at his death?) Anyway, I’ve known for several years what the name of this character is — Reagan Moon. During the writing, I’ve discovered that the name “Moon” holds some key to this loveable skeptic’s identity and the arc of the story. Nevertheless, I’ve been unsure what that connection is.
You think you see where this is going, don’t you? Not so quick.
Reagan Moon has a lot of quirky beliefs. Having researched numerology for a story, he’s come to recognize odd numeric occurrences in his own life, even though he remains dubious. So this has been my working intro for the last year or so, the first two paragraphs of “The Ghost Box,” for your eyes only:
If I really had magical powers, that’s the day I should have used them.
It was February the 18th and the moment I saw Blondie waiting at my apartment door, I remembered the date. The number 18 has always been significant for me. Notice I said significant, not lucky. I don’t believe in luck, especially now that Ellie’s gone. Nevertheless, that number seems to pop up in the oddest places. For instance, the car accident that put me into a two-week coma occurred on Highway 18. I received eighteen stitches across the back of my right shoulder after escaping from organ traffickers. Then there’s my apartment number, which Blondie was standing there looking at.
No, Blondie is not some curvaceous Marilyn Monroe lookalike. In fact, he’s 
not even a she. Anyway, the number 18 — this is the “big” one for Moon. Weird things seem to happen around that number or various combos, like double 9’s and 6+6+6. A pivotal scene will even occur near the end of the book regarding the number 18. That’s how “significant” the number is for my protag.
Okay, so what happened that convinced me to purchase “Signs and Symbols Sourcebook”? I casually picked the book up on my way out the store and randomly opened to page 403. “Coincidentally,” that is the section on Numbers. And “coincidentally,” Card 18 in the Tarot is The Moon.
Did you hear me? Card Eighteen is the Moon.
Cue Twilight Zone music.
For the record, I don’t believe in Tarot cards. In fact, the symbols on Card 18 are pretty creepy, even tragic. But it was, like, everything just fell into place about my character. I’d been “led to” a book in the bargain section and “just happened” to turn to the page that conjoined two key factors in my story: Moon & the number 18.
Weird.
I purchased the book on the spot.
Okay, so maybe I’m reading too much into it. Maybe I’m just too immersed in this story and living in some kind of fantasy world. I dunno. But I couldn’t help but feel that something bigger was unfolding, right there in Barnes and Noble.
In the Bargain Books.
Have you ever had one of those times where your work of fiction intersects, in some weird way, with Reality? When you are “guided” to info that brings your work of fiction to life?
Have you seen the movie “The Number 23”? Just curious. I thought it was really good. Creepy. And it has special meaning for writers. Plus, the whole number obsession thing. If you haven’t seen it, ya might want to give it a look :).
Oh, and the book looks really cool. I love putting symbolism in stories, and that might help….thanks for sharing!
No, I haven’t seen that movie. I’ll cue it in Netflix.
It is really a fantastic movie. And it’s the first thing I thought of when reading your post.
I’ve always wanted to see that movie, simply because it looks like such a departure from Jim Carrey’s usual stuff.
It is very much a departure from Jim Carrey’s usual stuff and gave me a whole new respect for him as an actor.
Oh, and I went to B&N today. I found “The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Signs and Symbols” in the bargain section, which has the same author, so I’m thinking they’re two different versions of the same thing? Mine’s paperback, and at half the price of the one you linked to I’m happy :).
I had the same impulse with that book, but sadly passed it by because I was broke. I tend to research symbols as needed, though, and I’d like to know if you’ve found this book to be accurate so far, or in depth enough for your purposes.
Thus far, it’s been fantastic. Nothing super in-depth, but there’s just SO much stuff, tid-bits of info on common symbols that are rather surprising. The reason I held out buying it was that B&N’s Bargain Books price was well below what you could get it online for, even a used copy.
His atomized girlfriend gives him a heads-up???
…in a way that only an atomized girlfriend could.
With an atomizer, of course.
I’ve heard of this happening. I did it to myself once. I had a story series with a bunch of characters, including a couple of self-inserts. One of my serts fell for another character. No big deal, right?
So I made one of the stories into a radio drama. One of my friends had the perfect voice for the self-insert’s love interest.
Guess who I wound up marrying. Yeah, the guy who played the character who had been my self-insert’s love interest. I had to stop writing those characters because it freaked me out too much.
That’s charming, Kessie!
I created a character called an ‘almost-cat,’ and fully imagined her to be a black cat… until she visited me in a dream to show me that she was a yellow tabby (well, partially, since an ‘almost-cat’ can shape-shift into a serpent, and be various percentages of each animal at any given moment). She’s found in my yet-to-be-published Middle Grade Fantasy set in the postmodern Ireland of the 1970s.
I don’t write spec fic (I can’t, really) but I do incorporate myths and folklore into my stories. One book centers around a forgotten Welsh myth that is utterly beautiful and with which I am obsessed.
When we found my father’s birth family (he’s adopted) we found they were from Wales and about 15 other things that reflect elements of the myth.
I am convinced that humans have a sort of genetic, instinctive memory that draws them back to certain fundamental tropes.
I’m also convinced that this is often how the lost find their way to Christ in places where missionaries haven’t gone.
Not quite a WIP story but still fun. I was sitting in a coffee shop, having existential angst about whether or not I should write Christian fiction or just stay mainstream. I had been talking myself into this “coming together” theme for my fiction regarding the secular/Christian /other faiths, but not feeling worthy of being a mouthpiece for that and also not feeling faithful “enough” for the genre. I seriously said this prayer over my coffee. “Lord, I need a sign.” Five minutes later, 2 rabbis, a priest, and a protestant minister sat next to me and brainstormed their coming together community event. God has a wicked sense of humor. 🙂
“Maybe I’m just too immersed in this story and living in some kind of fantasy world.”
Sounds like me, every day. I get this glazed look in my eyes, and Abby says: “You’re thinking about story stuff again, aren’t you?”
This has happened repeatedly with the current Billy the Kid project, in a slightly different way. Every time I’ve had an inkling for a direction I wanted to take the story, I’d do some research, and realize that history itself sorta flowed in the same direction I was thinking of taking the story, and I’ve just followed the connections from there…
As they say, fiction is based on real life happenings. I write what I know and what I know is largely what I have experienced (except I always make “me” a little more perfect). Sometimes when writing from memories of years past, a decade, maybe 15 years, I get a little foggy on the details that need to be in the story, a bit of historic ephemera, perhaps. Amazingly, the worlds converge. Someone from out of the past steps back into my life. I make an unplanned trip or move back to the location of the story. I get a call for a free-lance gig that puts me in the same circumstance I have already written about. Déjà vu.
Maybe, just maybe, we are writing our own stories – that’s why I like happy endings.
When I started working on the novel I finished around March, I was trying to come up with good written references to an aerial dogfight. Lo and behold, I check the book drop (I work at a library) and one of the patrons had returned our copy of “Fighting the Flying Circus,” the memoir of WWI ace Eddie Rickenbacker’s combat against German fighters. Perfect! The man even included step by step diagrams of his manuevers. Great read, and it gave me the info I needed.
Yes, I just remind myself every day that I’m a writer, and I’m weird. Don’t care much for romance, or Jane Austen. In fact, like Jo March said (at least in the movie), “I rather crave violence.” I’ve been angsting myself today about how this all plays out w/in the CBA. I just have to believe there are loads of others out there like myself, who don’t want to read something that’s already been written 1000 ways before. And I have to be okay with my weirdness. I’m trying to embrace it.
I might have had the opposite reaction: Screamed like a little girl and tossed the book in the nearest garbage can before bolting for the door. I would’ve burned the manuscript and prayed for 24 hours straight. . .okay, not really. Still, creepy. Like God writing his own ghost story. 😛
Simply: yes.